If you spend enough time camping, sooner or later you are going to encounter rain. Don't let it dampen your spirits. Have you ever been caught in your tent during a rain, and you had to make a run for the truck to get something, and you didn't have any rain gear handy? It may have been summer, and it may have been warm outside, but you still brought all those damp clothes back into the tent where it will eventually evaporate, condense on the walls, run down to the floor, and gather in little puddles here and there. Not a comfortable situation, is it? Rain gear would have helped avoid this.
What kind of rain gear are we talking about? Not much, really. For the case of running to the truck in the rain, I find that one of those big golf umbrellas work great and you can leave it outside the tent when you return. For running around the campsite doing chores, a cheap poncho works just fine. If you're into fishing, a little rain won't stop you, and you might prefer a rain suit consisting of a jacket, pants, and possibly a rain hat, which is less constricting than a hooded jacket. If you're backpacking in rain country, you'll likely have an arsenal of rain gear, which might include a rain jacket, rain pants, a rain hat, gaiters, and a backpack cover.
You don't need to spend a lot of money, but you can, if you're not careful. A Gore-Tex rain suit can run into hundreds of dollars. In 2001 I found a jacket marked half off at Dick's Sporting Goods. Great deal for a Gore-Tex jacket at $75. Gore-Tex does everything it says it does. That jacket is just one piece of my rain gear. I also carry one of those golf umbrellas in the back of the truck, and I have a cheap poncho tucked away in the camper as well as nylon rain pants with my fishing gear. I'm ready for just about anything.
Be ready for foul weather. Get some rain gear.
